Spanish Fork Carnival

Here are some pictures from Thursday afternoon. Ryan and Natalie invited us to go to the Spanish Fork Days Carnival. It was a lot of fun but very very VERY hot. Oh, and did I mention it was hot? I don't know what Spanish Fork was thinking, placing all the rides on top of black, tarry asphalt in 100+ temperatures. Probably something along the lines of 'Hey this is a large space with level surfaces to stabilize the rides.' But bah-humbug was it hot. We still had a good time, though.

Here are Riley and Olivia jeepin' through the Badlands (you can catch just a glimpse of the oh so realistic scenery in the background.) I can tell it won' t be long before these two cousins take off for Moab. :)

Next up they decided to run away to the circus and hopped on the train. Don't come back without pictures of a bearded lady, kids! Oh, wait... did I just describe the ride operator? Oops... (Just kidding by the way. It was definitely a man. I think.)

Here is a picture of Riley riding in a UFO. Dang, I thought those were circling Texas lately. What are they doing here? But I guess its just further proof that Riley and Andrea are related. Just kidding, sweetie. You totally were NOT a down-syndrome alien baby we adopted from birth. We just made that up as a way to tease you when you were little... Or did we?

Here Riley and Livvie are cruisin' on their motorcycles. Good thing this is pretend or else I'd be a little ticked they aren't wearing helmets. Note for the future kids. Always wear helmets. Of course, working for a 911 center I take all the gruesome calls about what happens when you DON'T wear your helmet. We call them donor-cycles. But I digress. Sorry. Looking good Easy Riders! (I know that's a Peter Fonda movie but all I hear in my head over and over is 'He's a cool cool cool cool rider' from Grease 2. Sad, I know.)

Here are Riley and Grandma Jan waiting in line to go on the Ferris Wheel.

Here they are actually on the Ferris Wheel. Jan said when they got up to the top and were stopped as the seats below were being filled Riley said 'When I was the Incredible Hulk I jumped off of here.' Nothing makes a mother prouder than for her 4 year old to discuss life-threatening behaviors in the guise of his superhero obsession. Fortunately for the heart and sanity of his mother watching below, my fearless son didn't actually try to re-enact this feat. At least if he thinks he is a superhero, he knows not to compromise his mild mannered exterior by doing superhuman things in little boy form. :)

Here Riley and Olivia are, riding on the Merry-Go-Round. We could not get those kids to smile normally to save us. As a side note, does anyone else ever have a secret wish that the horses would jump off and come to some level of animated life like in Mary Poppins? Or is that just me? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Here are the two little cousins at the end of a long fun afternoon. Please don't call social services regarding how red Riley's face is. I did immediately go and buy him a snow cone and a bottled water shortly after this picture was taken. However, after about 4 bites of snowcone he dropped it and it became lost to the pavement forever, but what's a mom to do?